The L.A. Times music blog

Folk singers Linda Perhacs and Ruthann Friedman drift down from the canyons to McCabe's on Sunday

April 8, 2011 | 6:34
pm

In 1970, Linda Perhacs recorded “Parallelograms,” her lone album, which builds to mystical heights on the breathtaking title song, a concentric suite of multi-tracked vocals, finger-picked guitar and a big rupturing maw of a freak-out, all inspired by her vision of dancing lights on the Ventura Freeway. Working as a dental hygienist at the time, Perhacs was so disappointed in how flat the album sounded on vinyl that she dumped it in the garbage, and proceeded not to record another note for the next 40 years.

“Parallelograms” eventually became a rare talisman of the psychedelic era, shared by super-fans who had little information about its creator. Perhacs finally reemerged around 2008, ready to embrace her legacy and especially those who have fostered its latest incarnation. In addition to being championed by fans as diverse as Devendra Banhart, Daft Punk and Animal Collective, Perhacs performed her shiver-inducing folk in a rare appearance at last year’s New Los Angeles Folk Festival and most recently rereleased “Parallelograms” with Kemado/Mexican Summer.

Through the same local upstarts behind the New L.A. Folk Fest, she’ll be performing again this Sunday with another California legend, Ruthann Friedman, whose 1969 work, “Constant Companion,” no doubt scored many a macramé-stitching party with her friends Van Dyke Parks, Frank Zappa and other wild-haired denizens of the L.A. '60s scene. Drag City recently released a 7” of rarities from the singer who also wrote the chart-topping “Windy” for her pals in the Association.

Both Friedman and Perhacs will be playing new music from their upcoming albums, accompanied by local musicians. Backed by Ramona Gonzalez of Nite Jewel, frequent collaborator Julia Holter, as well as Michelle Vidal and Aaron Robinson, Perhacs will play her new song, “Delicious Descant,” which takes off from her “Parallelograms” track “Delicious.” You can listen to the work below, which features Perhacs’ delicate harmonies reverberating off of Holter’s vocal lines, all of it underscored by smooth percussive burbles and pops.